A blog about making model trains, little boats and both real and model automobiles. Typed by someone with painty hands, oil under his fingernails and the smell of solder in his nostrils.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Weathered store

Time to get the store hut dirty. Since the magazine part of this project isn't about the painting, I could experiment a little with some of the products sitting around my workspace.

First up, the roof was painted with Modelmates Rust Effect. A couple of years ago, I tried these and while I could see potential, the immediate results didn't do much for me so I passed the potions on to someone with more patience and returned to my normal paint'n'powder methods.

Now, the pots have changed and I felt I ought to try again. A good coat over the roof and door gave me a really nice effect. The liquid dried quickly and nicely mat. Results were patchy, just like large areas of real rust. The leather base colour might have helped but I was really impressed and will use this again. I'll investigate some of the other pots in the stash too.

After this, the building was dusted with weathering powder - mostly Humbrol brown but some Mig rust too. I work over a plastic box lid and use the leftovers that drop in here as a mixed colour. Everything was applied with a inch wide cheap paintbrush mostly working from top to bottom. The effect I was aiming for was dirty, not ramshackle.

A finish that you ignore rather then look at was the plan and I think I'm there. This could sit in the background of a layout and look right without shouting about itself. Using weathering powders is simple enough for anyone to do too.